Illinois

The legal landscape of Illinois litigation

Illinois operates a three-tier court system. Trial courts of general jurisdiction are organized as Circuit Courts across the state's 24 judicial circuits and 102 counties, with the Circuit Court of Cook County standing as the largest unified trial court in the United States. The Cook County Circuit Court is subdivided into divisions including the Law Division for substantial civil claims, the Chancery Division for equitable matters, and the Commercial Calendar Section within the Law Division for complex business disputes. Intermediate appellate review runs through the Appellate Court of Illinois across five judicial districts, with the Illinois Supreme Court as the court of last resort.

Civil procedure operates under the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, codified at 735 ILCS 5/, which provides distinct procedural framework from the Federal Rules. Section 2-619 governs motions to dismiss based on affirmative matters, while Section 2-1005 governs summary judgment practice. Statutes of limitations vary by claim type. Section 13-202 establishes a two-year limit for personal injury and wrongful death. Section 13-206 carries a ten-year period for breach of written contract, with shorter periods for oral contracts, fraud, and statutory claims. Illinois maintains its own False Claims Act under 740 ILCS 175/, modeled on the federal FCA, with a six-year limitations period from violation or three years from discovery.

Federal practice and Cook County's commercial dockets

Illinois has three federal judicial districts. The Northern District, headquartered in Chicago at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse, is among the busiest federal districts in the country, hearing complex commercial, securities, intellectual property, and qui tam matters. The Central District, with primary divisions in Urbana, Springfield, Peoria, and Rock Island, covers central and western Illinois. The Southern District, with primary courthouses in East St. Louis and Benton, handles matters arising in the state's southern counties. The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, also headquartered in Chicago at the Dirksen Courthouse, reviews federal appeals from Illinois along with Indiana and Wisconsin.

The Cook County Circuit Court's Commercial Calendar Section operates as a specialized venue for complex business disputes within the Law Division, with case management protocols designed for sophisticated commercial litigation. Cook County's Law Division more generally maintains heavy commercial dockets that include breach of contract, fraud, partnership and corporate disputes, and substantial business torts. The combined federal docket in the Northern District and the state docket in Cook County make Chicago one of the most active commercial litigation centers in the country, with active False Claims Act qui tam practice on both sides of the federal-state divide.

The firm's Illinois bench and Chicago heritage

Holdsworth & Inkwell maintains five attorneys admitted to the Illinois Bar: Senior Counsel Diane Lockhart, Senior Counsel Sandy Stern, Partner Alicia Florrick, Senior Associate Lucca Quinn, and Senior Associate Cary Agos. Each of these attorneys built their early and mid-career practice at Chicago firms before joining Holdsworth & Inkwell. Diane Lockhart spent her partnership years at Lockhart Gardner and Reddick Boseman & Lockhart. Sandy Stern practiced in Chicago for forty-five years before joining the Atlanta office. Alicia Florrick built her career across three Chicago firms over more than twenty years. Lucca Quinn worked eight years at Reddick Boseman & Lockhart with Diane. Cary Agos was a name partner at Florrick Agos & Lockhart, a firm whose name carried both Alicia and Diane's prior affiliations.

The firm does not maintain a physical office in Illinois. Illinois matters are handled from the Sacramento and Atlanta offices, where the five Illinois-admitted attorneys are currently based, with pro hac vice admission for non-Illinois-barred attorneys on complex teams when warranted. The depth of the firm's Illinois bench reflects an institutional choice: rather than maintaining a Chicago office, Holdsworth & Inkwell concentrated the Chicago-trained bench across two offices where their broader practice could expand, while preserving the bar admissions and procedural fluency required to continue serving Illinois-resident parties and Illinois-venued matters.